Recycling operators have expressed growing alarm about delays to a solar panel recycling scheme promised by the Albanese government with fears some could go bust while they wait.
The $25m pilot scheme was announced in January to help develop a local industry for the recycling of panels and the recovery of valuable materials such as copper and aluminium.
A process to appoint an entity to run the pilot was suspended in May after an undisclosed complaint, first reported by Renew Economy. The scheme had been due to commence mid-year.
Four months on, eight solar recycling companies have written to several ministers to urge the government to lift the suspension.
Their concerns follow the government’s recent decision to shelve plans for mandatory national packaging standards.
The companies said the prolonged delay threatened the financial viability of operators in the emerging solar recycling industry and hindered Australia’s ability to recover “high-purity critical materials”.
They wrote “every month of delay exacerbates the volume of solar waste entering landfills, damaging public trust in renewable energy infrastructure”.
James Petesic, one of the letter’s signatories, is the co-founder of solar panel recycler PV Industries, which has facilities in Sydney and Melbourne.
He said there had been little communication or clarity about the pilot’s future since the federal Department of Climate Change, Energy, the Environment and Water suspended the procurement process in May.
Sign up for the Breaking News Australia email“The more time goes on, the more panels are coming off roofs,” he said.
“And … the more we risk losing recycling capacity because more businesses will go into administration.”
Petesic said the ongoing delay was affecting investor certainty in the industry.
The letter urges the government to use a public interest provision in procurement laws to lift the suspension, so that the pilot can still progress while the complaint is investigated.
Petesic said one of the biggest issues for the nascent industry was supply of solar panels. About one in three Australians have rooftop solar but most rooftop panels are not recycled at the end of their life.
Recyclers have struggled to secure enough panels, with many ending up in landfill or waste stockpiles. Victoria is the only state with an outright ban on solar panels going to rubbish dumps, though some landfill sites in other jurisdictions also refuse to accept them.
Petesic said as households installed home batteries, many were choosing to upgrade their solar panels at the same time, increasing the volume of panels that were becoming waste.
He said the goals of the pilot scheme were to support transport of panels to recyclers, guarantee supply of panels for recycling and help the solar recycling industry to grow.
The pilot was also intended to inform development of a mandatory national solar panel recycling scheme.
The chief executive of the Australian Council of Recycling, Suzanne Toumbourou, said the delay would have “knock-on effects” for people who had invested in solar recycling.
“There has been absolutely no clarity about the nature of the complaint that has held this process up indefinitely, which means the sector has no concept of what the way forward looks like,” she said.
“Investment confidence has already been shaken by the delay itself but the indefinite nature of it amplifies that.”
A department spokesperson said the government “remains committed to the policy objectives of the national solar panel recycling pilot”.
They said the appointment process remained suspended in accordance with the government’s procurement rules.
Gayle Sloan, the CEO of the Waste Management and Resource Recovery Association, said instead of the pilot scheme the government should introduce national regulations that made producers of solar panels responsible for what happened to them – whether that was repair, reuse or recycling.
“We don’t need more trials. We need regulation that places the responsibility squarely on producers,” she said.
